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Beet Brownies are a decadent brown butter brownie recipe with a smooth buttermilk roasted beet puree mixed into the batter.
The result is a lusciously soft brownie with an intense dark chocolate flavor. You’ll enjoy the added health benefits of cooking with beets and will be pleasantly surprised with the flavor!
If you love interesting brownies and bars, you’ll probably love my banana bread brownies, pumpkin swirl brownies, and my brown butter brownies.
Why this recipe works:
Beet Brownies are so much better than regular brownies.
Hate beets? These might not be for you. Love beets? Or even like beets? These will blow your mind.
I’ve been using this beet puree in all sorts of things like beet pancakes and red velvet cookies and now brownies.
I’ll never forget the first time I ate beets (I was a very late-in-life beet person) and asked a friend what the heck I do with a beet and he said “throw it in the garbage – they taste like dirt”. He’s a smart guy, but I’m so happy I didn’t listen to him.
My entire family loves beets.
From fresh citrus beet salad to beet soup, we can’t get enough of this dark red super food.
How to cook beets in the oven:
All you do is wrap the whole trimmed beet, or a bunch of trimmed beets, in aluminum foil and cook them in a 400 degree F oven for at least an hour until they’re soft.
Let them cool enough to handle so you can remove the peel and and chop.
How to cook beets in the Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker:
Set the trimmed beets on the steamer basket. Add about a cup of water to the cooking pot.
Set the timer to 15 minutes and cook on high pressure. Quick release the pressure when they’re done. Again, once they’re cool enough to handle, you can peel and chop them.
Making the puree couldn’t be easier. To make the beet puree, blend them up with some buttermilk until they are velvety smooth. That’s all, folks!
Why are beet brownies so good?
You can see by that gorgeous color that roasted beets have been added to my recipe. The first time I photographed these beet brownies, I actually put 50% more beet puree in. My family loved the way it tasted, but they really didn’t look like a brownie. I ended up photographing them again when I made the recipe video.
One of the magical things about adding beet puree is how velvety smooth the final brownie ends up being. Its so freaking good.
I love adding chocolate chunks to this recipe. Yes, you can add chocolate chips, but there’s just something different about a chocolate chunk that I love. Perhaps its the random sizes of the chunks that keeps me guessing. Who knows – I’m weird like that. As for the beets though, don’t just take my word for it – you must try it yourself. You will love it!
Bears beets Battlestar Galactica.
Yes. I said it.
If you don’t understand my joke, just leave me a comment and I’ll explain. If you do get it, you’re my kind of person.
I couldn’t make beet brownies without saying that bears beets Battlestar Galactica.
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Ingredients
Beet puree:
- 1 large red beet or two small beets
- 1/4 cup buttermilk amount may vary
Beet Brownies:
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1¼ cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup beet puree You can reduce this amount if you’re worried about putting that much beet into your brownies
- 3/4 cup unbleached flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks
Instructions
To make beet puree:
- In oven: Wrap whole beets (stems removed) in aluminum foil and roast in 400 degree F oven for at least an hour until soft to the touch. Alternatively, In Instant Pot: Set beets on rack and add 1 cup water. Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. Instant release pressure.Allow beets to cool enough to handle and peel away skin.
- Puree beets in blender or food processor with just enough buttermilk to allow puree to achieve a very smooth consistency. Note: only 1 cup of beet puree will be used for this recipe. If you end up with extra puree, you can use extra puree in pancake batter, soups, etc.
To make beet brownies:
- Preheat oven to 325F. Grease or line a 8x8x2 metal pan with parchment foil paper.
- Using a medium to large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir frequently as it continues to bubble. When there are small brown specs, and it smells like nutty caramel, remove pan from heat.
- Add sugar, cocoa powder and salt to combine.
- In separate bowl, beat eggs. After butter mixture has cooled in pot 4-5 minutes, slowly pour eggs into pot with sugar/butter/cocoa powder, stirring constantly until well combined.
- Add vanilla and 1 cup beet puree, stir to combine.
- Add flour and baking powder, stir to combine.
- Add chocolate chunks, stir to combine.
- Bake 25-35 minutes in preheated oven or until top no longer looks wet. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are delish! I used a 15 oz can of sliced drained beets puréed with 1/4 cup of buttermilk it was exactly 1 cup of purée. I used coconut oiI and monk fruit sugar. topped this with coconut, chopped pecans,and chocolate chips. It did bake longer 35-40 minutes. I think that might have been from the monk fruit. It’s a keeper!
What the weight of beet? It’s so relative -1pc. It’s can totally change a consistency of cake in the end.
The size of the beet doesn’t really matter because you turn it into a puree by adding just enough buttermilk and then you measure out 1 cup of the puree to add to the brownies.
I think it would be helpful to list that we only need to add one cup of puree to the instructions. I had the same question as Mari. I altered my printed instructions to add one cup. Thank you.
I added something to the instructions to indicate using only 1 cup of the puree. Thank you so much for the suggestion!
I can’t get the Video Up
You should be able to click to play the video in the recipe card
These brownies taste awesome and feel moist and rich! I had never cooked beets before but it’s EASY! The only aspect I didn’t like was to have the oven on for a whole hour. Next time I might use already cooked beets sold in shrink wrap or perhaps frozen beet slices. I used 1 cup of granulated sugar and would use even less next time, either 3/4 cup or even 1/2 cup. Mixing all the ingredients in a pan was also a first for me. Smart! Also, I didn’t have parchment foil paper, only parchment paper. To line the square dish, I started by crumpling it to make it more malleable. It made it so easy to remove the brownies from the baking dish. Thank you!
I love beets. For those who have made this recipe, did your NON beet loving family like the brownies? I have made brownies with spinach before and they ate them, but said it was more like cake than brownies. Just curious what feedback you can give. Thanks
Where is the video?
It should pop up in a video player that automatically plays when you open the link.
My grandchildren don’t eat vegetables so this is a wonderful way to hide them. The brownies are delicious and decadent. They are definitely a share recipe and dessert. Thank you for sharing.
Would these work with walnuts? Could I add in a cup or do you think that might throw off the flavor?
I always love walnuts in my brownies. They would be a fantastic addition to this recipe.
I forgot to come back in here to say thank you so much for getting back to me as quickly as you did and I did make these with the walnuts (I only added half a cup but it was perfect). They were amazing! I can never make these again because they are way too DELICIOUS and dangerous. I ate them all by myself. 🤭 I highly recommend these! Thank you Krissy for the recipe.
Ah, I’m so glad you liked them! I haven’t made them in awhile but I really should. I used to eat beets like it was no one’s business… but for some reason radishes are my new odd addiction. But not in brownies.
Hi,
Do these freeze well ?
Hello- you think adding marshmallows would work?
In place of what? If you just mean to mix in mini marshmallows, I do think it would work but I don’t think they would compliment the flavors.
Made these non dairy by subbing in coconut oil for butter. Used part Splenda & part sugar. Used part sugar free chocolate chips & dark chocolate chips. Sprinkled powdered sugar on top & they are delicious!
I got a bunch of white beets in a CSA box this week, any idea if those might work instead of typical red beets? I’ve never had white beets so I’m not sure if the flavor is similar! These look so tasty!
Thanks!
I bet it would work perfect! I think the white beets would also offer a more “tame” beet flavor.